View full sizeMatt Slocum, APDion Waiters will finally be wearing a Cavaliers uniform on the court when the team opens summer league play Sunday in Las Vegas. "He's an exciting player," says Kyrie Irving. "You guys have no idea what we have."

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LAS VEGAS -- According to Kyrie Irving, Cavaliers fans are in for a treat when rookie Dion Waiters hits the court.

"He's an exciting player," Irving said as the Cavaliers prepared to open summer league practice on Friday. "You guys have no idea what we have. I have an idea just from high school and seeing him in college. He's a bulldog."

Irving, the 2011 No. 1 pick who became the Rookie of the Year, and Waiters, the No. 4 pick in 2012, met as high school juniors making the tour of basketball camps.

"We both earned each other's respect for each other's games," Irving said. "Having him on the team now is a special opportunity, and I feel like this is the future of our program."

Syracuse Jim Boeheim thinks Waiters is a perfect complement for Irving, who seemed to have to make all the big plays down the stretch last season.

"Kyrie will take a little pressure of [Waiters], and I think he can take a little pressure off Kyrie because he can play some like a point guard and get other people involved and then he can finish," said Boeheim, who was here as an assistant on the 2012 U.S. men's Olympic basketball team.

Boeheim and Waiters famously clashed when Waiters took exception to coming off the bench his freshman year. But the Hall of Fame coach had veteran guards who had helped the Orange win 30 or more games in consecutive seasons.

"He could have started for us, and he could have started for anybody in the country," Boeheim said of Waiters. "It was just for our team, it was the best way to go."

Waiters didn't agree, and so Boeheim told him to leave, right?

"Let's clarify that," he said with a smile. "I did tell him to leave, but I knew his mother wouldn't let him leave."

The coach said that meeting, after Waiters' freshman year, was a turning point.

"I said, 'If you want to come back here, I want you back, but if you're going to have the same attitude and be unhappy because you're not starting,' -- I never tell kids that in April, I always tell them in April, 'Well, you have a chance.' -- I said, 'You don't have a chance. You've got to accept that.' I said, 'If you come back here and take that role, you will get drafted in the top 15 picks.' That's what I said to him. He says I said 20, but I think I said 15. Obviously, he did even better than that.

"I think it's a good lesson for him and everybody to learn. You don't have to start. You need to be a good player. If you're a good player, people will see that."

And Boeheim believes Waiters is a very, very good player.

"He's a tremendous talent," he said. "As I've said, he's the most talented guard I've had. I think he's the most NBA-ready guard that I've had. He's physical. He can play both [guard] spots if he has to. He's got a big-game mentality. He wants to play in big games. He wants to try to make the play. I think he's got unbelievable potential in the NBA. He can go to the basket, but he can shoot. He's a very good shooter.

"I just think he's going to be a terrific player. I think Cleveland did their homework. I think they took the best player. I thought he was the second-best player in the draft. I thought they did a great job. If he's healthy, he'll be the second-best player in the draft."

The last word: From Irving, a Duke alum, on whether there will be any trash talk with rookie center Tyler Zeller, a North Carolina alum, "I'll leave Tyler alone. He's a senior, so he has a few years on me. I'll leave him alone."